Persuasive Speech Reflection

I was definitely less nervous this time since it was our second time around talking for a long time in front of the whole class. But, since my last topic for the informative speech was about something I knew more about, since it involved my home country and issues that I read about everyday, I felt more confident talking about it than talking about porn. Especially since its a topic that many people feel uncomfortable to discuss. I chose to talk about porn because Larry Flynt came to talk in one of my other classes and raised some issues that got me thinking about society's standards and why these professionals are so scrutinized for what they do. Which is why I chose to show a different side to the industry and to the female porn stars.
During my research perhaps one of my biggest challenges was overcoming the fallacies we talked about in class, I tried to keep away from conventional wisdom that tends to stick around in such a controversial topic and also not make any assumptions or correlations that did not exist. But every time I made an argument, I knew there were a zillion counter-arguments for it, which took me more time than expected to organize my ideas and narrow down my points. Before the peer edit reviews I was having problems tying together my three main points but after some time I think I managed to tie them together well and make the presentation cohesive and easy to follow. I also think I did a good job inserting my counter-arguments in the middle of my points to make them stronger. Another challenge was to think of source credibility to talk on the subject. I don't personally know anyone in the industry but I've met people like Belle Knox that did all they could legally to improve their lives, so I figured this would be enough to show my understanding for these porn stars.
I struggled with time during my speech, every time I practiced I went over 7 minutes because all my points were so extensive and needed all the evidence that I presented but happily I managed to stay under the time limit during my actual speech, even though I rushed through some points without pausing. I think my attention getter was really good because it was direct evidence from a person in the industry and that was in college just like the rest of us, and I personally found the documentary very interesting. 
Overall I think my speech went better than I expected, but I know next time I need to try to take out a few sub-points or unimportant information so that I can speak slower and more effectively and still be under the time limit of 7 minutes. I also should narrow down my sources, which was a challenge this time since I had to get different points from many different sources. So my topic was a real brain cracker but I was overall satisfied with my presentation because I think I managed to show my audience the other side to the porn industry and how its challenges are mostly derived from society's fabricated moral standards.
On Tuesday I really liked Kayla's speech on euthanasia because she brought up similar points to me that we are the owners of our body and therefore should have the right to do what we want with it without being judged. I also liked what she said about closure, which really is what many families need, sometimes to even preserve the image of their loved ones. But, if she wanted to take this topic further she could have talked about where we should draw the line between who has a really bad deadly illness and who doesn't? So does everyone get the right to be euthanized or how do we make the decision of who does and doesn't?
On Thursday I really liked Stephanie's speech on adopting a dog from a shelter because I strongly agree with her and she also managed to bring the other side of the story which was good to understand why for most people that just want a regular pet, adopting is more advantageous. Equally, I also liked Sunny's speech on volunteering because I think we are all young and capable of devoting some of our time to others. Donating is distant and won't give someone the ability to develop empathy; a crucial characteristic in life and something that Sunny managed to portray to us extensively through her points.

persuasive speech Julia Tseng

I felt a lot more comfortable about speaking in front of the class this time because I had practiced a lot. I felt that I delivered the main points of my speech clearly and in a concise way. However, I was still nervous, but not as nervous as the last speech I had given. I did notice that I had to pause a couple of times because I did not want to miss any details with my main points. I only had one counterargument and I wish I had more time to give more counterarguments because this was a topic that was fun for me to do and very informational. I feel that next time I should write better key words in my notecards, so I can glance at the words and speak. I feel like I should have included some videos of planet fitness. I should make better eye contacts with my classmates. Overall, I was satisfied with my speech, but I know I have a lot more to improve on.

Tuesday: I really liked the speech that was given by Katherine. She gave compelling reasons on why students should travel abroad which really resonated with me, and made me want to travel abroad also. Her experiences were very interesting and exciting to hear.

Thursday: I really liked the speech about adopting from a shelter. I never knew that buying from a breeder would be harmful to the dogs at the shelter, and it makes me want to adopt from a shelter and give a dog a happy home.



Julia Tseng

Persuasive Speech - Reflection Blog

            I felt less confident after this speech than my informative speech, which was interesting since I actually spent more time to practicing it. I think there were just certain ways of logically phrasing arguments that I could have made a little clearer so that I could state them more confidently. I also forgot to say a line in my intro about how I work at a label to establish credibility and also recognize bias. I also feel like my informative speech was probably more interesting, even if this speech had more of a “so what.”

            I really liked the visuals that Cheannie used in her speech on celebrity infatuation. They were interesting and further proved what she was saying. The slide that compared Obama’s Twitter followers to a celeb’s was great. I also thought Julia’s was really interesting since I had never heard of Planet Fitness, and the descriptions were so ridiculous that they were entertaining. I think she should have argued that the government should crack down on their false advertising instead of just shutting down the whole operation considering that that is not really something they would reasonably be able to do, but she is definitely right that something should be done to stop them from trying to convince people that they really promote health. 

Reflection Blog for Persuasive Speech

Last Tuesday I gave my persuasive speech on why the audience should be more conscious of their wastefulness. This is a topic that I am very passionate about, which I think helped me a lot with the presentation of my speech. Last time I was really nervous, but this time I felt more confident. I think it was a combination of practicing more and knowing my topic better. One thing I did not do well was managing my time. Initially I thought my speech was going to be too short, but I think my examples at the beginning took too long because in the end I ran out of time. This caused me to wrap up hastily and not be able to reiterate my main points. Nevertheless, I was very happy with this speech because I think I improved on my delivery.

A speech that I might disagree with that was also presented on Tuesday was the one that talked about the gym that serves candy and pizza. I feel like they must have an alternative motive for this and I feel like we did not get enough of a counter argument to clarify this. I obviously don't believe that a gym should encourage this type of behavior, I would have just liked to have a little bit more information on the company.

On Thursday, I really enjoyed the speech on porn. It brought attention to an issue that is rarely ever discussed. It definitely persuaded me to believe that porn is just another industry. I also really lived how she talked about how society only freaks out because its empowering for a women and that if this case was focused on a man no one would care. I think this is an important topic and I'm glad it was discussed.

Persuasive Speech Reflection

Last Tuesday I spoke about why students should study abroad. Similarly to last time, I was a little sick when speaking so that got in the way a bit. Overall, however, I feel that I did a good job. For the first speech one of my critiques was that my speech sounded memorized and that it should be more conversational so I worked really hard to improve that this time. I felt that this time I was a lot better at being conversational. This was both because I was focusing on this aspect of my delivery, and because this was a topic that I had a bigger personal connection to. Though I did really like my last topic, this one was one that I was much more passionate about because studying abroad was an amazing experience for me. This is also why it was a lot easier for me to speak for a longer amount of time.

Just like last time, practicing the speech aloud to my roommates numerous times was very helpful. It helped me get my timing down, as well as my conversational tone. This is a technique that works very well for me because I speak differently to myself in a mirror than I do when people are present.

I feel that I did a very good job of making even eye contact with the room. I made sure to regularly look back at the few people sitting to the side/behind me. My pace and volume also seemed to be at a good level.

As for other people's speeches, on Tuesday I really enjoyed Riley's speech about why we should be more conscious of our waste. It was a very relevant topic, and I especially liked her point about all-you-can-eat style restaurants. This made me more mindful when eating dinner at my sorority, as I noticed how much food I tend to throw away. On Thursday I really liked the visuals in Cheannie's speech about celebrity obsessions. The colors were great and the photos were relevant and made her speech more interesting.

Overall, I think these speeches have been great for everyone!

Persuasive Speech Reflection

            So last Thursday I gave my persuasive speech and I definitely think being in the second group this time helped me because I was a bit nervous about giving a speech on a topic where I had to pick a side about a topic and present it to an audience with my open opinion and stance. You never know how people are going to react or whether they’re going to think you’re wrong or your argument is stupid, so being in the second group and listening to Group A speak first, it reassured me that we’re all just talking about topics that relatively aren’t extremely controversial, and no one is being too aggressive with their points. I think that’s the right way to deliver a persuasive speech, not forcing your opinion down people’s throats but instead convincing them in a way they don’t realize they’re being convinced, which was what I really tried to do in my speech.

            When picking out my topic I was originally going to go with lowering the drinking age to 18, since it was a topic that had a lot of research behind it and after being in Europe during spring semester, I’m very for the idea. However in class, another classmate said that she wanted to do the same topic as well which of course is not a big deal, but I did want to keep the class in mind and choose a different topic that way people aren’t sitting through the same stories and ideas. So going off of that, I decided to a pick a topic that I am actually very passionate about which is the opinion that America’s celebrity based culture is extremely unhealthy for us as a society. As a person who works in the entertainment industry and very much enjoys attending shows and events, I have had my share of experiences with a crazy crowd and fan base. It’s been a thought I have had for awhile now so I thought it would be great to speak up on it and present the topic to the class.

            I was very surprised that there was actually a lot of research behind the topic! It looks like I’m not the only one concerned about the harmful effects of having a celebrity-obsessed society. I made sure to read articles that gave both sides of the argument because in a persuasive speech it is very important to address the opposing side as well so that your argument will be stronger. If you only talk about your side, you’re leaving your audience with the ability to create counter arguments. However, if you talk about the counterarguments, you can find ways to void them or let the audience know that even though it does have benefits, that doesn’t mean that those benefits outweigh all the negativity that comes with it.

            I decided to conduct a PowerPoint this time because I saw others did it in the first speech and it just seemed a lot easier to deliver this specific topic when I can show examples of celebrity in the media. I think I was more prepared for this speech than I was for the last one because I knew what to expect and I’m starting to get used to my audience. I also felt it was bit easier because my notecards were better and I was able to get my points across rather than last time where I forgot to mention certain things. I also tried hard to make sure that even though I was using a PowerPoint, that it wasn’t overpowering my speech or the main point of it because this wasn’t a visual aid topic. I do need to work on speaking more. I feel like sometimes I get a bit nervous and when I forgot a word this time, I sort of froze and completely blanked on the idea I was trying get across. If this happens next time, I definitely want to be more prepared with my ideas so that it’s not such a disaster next time. I will do this by writing keywords onto my notecards.

            As for the other speeches I think everyone did such a good job and picking topics that were relevant and easy to understand. I think that on Tuesday one of the best speeches I heard was Riley’s speech on becoming more ecofriendly. I believed she did a great job because of how passionate she felt about the topic and it made me feel passionate about the topic as well. By starting off with saying how easy it is to recycle and that there was no excuse for people not to do so it made me agree completely with the rest of her speech. She also mentioned how it was so unreasonable for people to use hundreds of paper towels and for some reason that stuck with me because by making the audience realize how ridiculous being not ecofriendly on things like using excessive paper towels, it makes us really think about the topic. As for Thursday, I really enjoyed Stephanie’s speech on adopting dogs! I think she did a wonderful job delivering the counterargument of buying from a breeder and then simply arguing why adopting a dog is much better. I was actually so convinced that I started looking into adopting a dog myself. She did a good job in listing the benefits of adopting dogs, and while there are a lot, she mentioned the most relevant and strongest points to us such as saving money and saving a dog. Overall, I’m excited for the next round of speeches.